Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 172
Ask post:
Where does the phrase "losing your virginity" come from?
Why is virginity lost, rather than given, or broken?
In Shakespeare, virginity is not only lost, but also defeated, cracked, assailed, blown down, and devoured; it murders and consumes itself, "and so dies with feeding his own stomach." (Most of these images are courtesy of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 1:06 AM on September 3, 2008 
marked best answer
Ask post:
Help me go to hell!
Plenty of cool illusions here, from that old theatrical standby Pepper's Ghost to the more modern Breathing Door.
This site offers some ideas designed directly for a Halloween setup.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 7:14 AM on August 29, 2008
Ask post:
Vengeance manifested throught different cultures.
In addition to Nemesis (who brings retribution to the proud and overly fortunate) and Eris ("Strife," whose charge is human conflict), I'd pay close attention to the Erinyes (or "Furies"), who are arguably the vengeance gods most important to the Western dramatic tradition.
The Erinyes carried out vengeance for crimes against the natural order, particularly murders of parents by children, guests by hosts, and kings by subjects. In Aeschylus's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 12:42 PM on July 10, 2008
Ask post:
Is poison green?
Green's association with radioactivity might also be due to uranium's use in glass making. Uranium glass is a vivid green.
Trinitite, a silicate/feldspar residue found in the Trinity nuclear test crate, was also a distinctive light green.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:05 AM on March 22, 2008
Ask post:
What political scandals rocked the Middle Ages?
It's just a little outside your time range, but the Cadaver Synod of 897 is a ghoulish bit of fun. Pope Stephen VI exhumed the corpse of the previous pontiff, propped it in a chair, and put it on trial. (Nasreddin's fine MeFi write-up here.)
Historically, the trial (as well as the subsequent conviction, mutilation and river burial of Formosus' body) was motivated by old ecclesiastical and political grudges. But who's to say that darker, more ominous forces didn't lurk... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 1:13 PM on March 14, 2008
Ask post:
Destroying works of art as a creative process?
Kevin Kilroy's "The Silence of Malachi Ritscher" was a play about a musician who committed self-immolation as a protest against the Iraq War. After the tenth and final performance, the script was burned on stage. The play will never be performed again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:08 AM on March 11, 2008
Ask post:
Songs with overlapping verses?
From the "Popular Music" section of Wikipedia's Counterpoint article:Counterpoint is common in musical theatre, especially in songs that try to compare or contrast two or more characters' views. Stephen Sondheim, for example, is famous for extensive use of counterpoint. In his dark operetta Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, many songs are written using contrapuntal techniques, most notably 'Kiss Me Quartet'. Other musical theatre composers use it as well: in Les... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 3:36 PM on February 28, 2008
And not from musical theater, but still notable: the final track of Local H's Here Comes the Zoo drops into a coda that layers the choruses of the previous nine songs on top of each other.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 3:44 PM on February 28, 2008
Ask post:
What strategy/simulation based games would I love?
Seconding Europa Universalis 2. (Favorably reviewed here.) It was published in 2001, so the graphics aren't particularly intensive, and it has all the ludicrous granularity and realism you could ever want. You can get it with Victoria, Hearts of Iron, Crown of the North, and Two Thrones in Paradox's Strategy Pack-Six. [sic]
You might also want to try... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 10:51 PM on February 27, 2008
Ask post:
Can I count on my GPS during an extended blackout?
Unless your car is purely electric, it will derive the energy needed to power your GPS from its gasoline supply, via its engine; a blackout would have no effect on the process.
Now, it's very possible that a two month failure of the power infrastructure would hinder your ability to replenish that gasoline, but I imagine the gas stations would eventually affect some sort of work-around.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 7:33 PM on February 18, 2008
Ask post:
A rose by any other name...
I think that pairing a short first name (Erin counts, I would think) with a longer surname works out well. (Of course, as my own name is ____ ________, that's almost certainly bias speaking.)
If you want to use the rhythm met- excuse me, the stress method suggested above, this rhythmically organized list of female names might come in handy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:46 AM on February 18, 2008
If anonymity's your aim, then just pick one of the more common Irish surnames. "Walsh" and "Quinn" are simple to spell and pretty on the tongue. You could even go for an easy iambic "ba-BA" in "O'Neill."
And when appended to Erin, each of these will easily net you over a 100K hits on Google.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:59 AM on February 18, 2008
Ask post:
Guys, how do you know she appreciates you?
Although I mean it sincerely, "This is wonderful, thank you!!!" seems insufficient. Lame. Or is it?
"Thank you!" is quite sufficient. Mix it up occasionally with a silent "I love you so much" smile, and you'll do fine.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:12 PM on February 17, 2008
Ask post:
Male with female hips
If you feel it's worth the effort, work on your shoulder muscles. Building up the deltoids would go a ways towards balancing your silhouette.
Other than that, relax! However you arrived at your bone structure, whether it was through soy milk or radioactive spider bites or simple bad luck genetics, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it - so why worry about what you can't change?
And as to romance: women might dig or might not dig a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:05 PM on February 17, 2008
Ask post:
Do You Want To Save The World?
The Lost plot may have been inspired by "Dead Man's Switch," an Outer Limits episode in which an Air Force officer (James LeGros) is sealed alone in an underground bunker in the early days of an alien invasion. LeGros's cell, like four other cells on different continents, is wired to a massive doomsday device capable of rendering the Earth's surface uninhabitable. At random intervals, an alarm sounds, and a countdown begins, giving LeGros or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 12:19 PM on February 17, 2008
Ask post:
Wash your mouth out?
It could be that your particular brand of meat is heavy in phosphates. Phosphates are often added to meats to preserve color and texture (and, in the case of chicken, to fight salmonella); but if they're used too liberally, they can upset the natural acidity of the meat and give it an alkaline, "soapy" flavor. Alternately, stress to the original animal can also raise the pH of the meat, with similar results.
In either case, I'd switch to a more organic, less... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 11:04 PM on February 12, 2008 marked best answer
Ask post:
What should I check out in the South Loop?
When I find myself in the South Loop with time to spare, I usually visit the neighborhood book stores. The cavernous Burnham Park Powell's is always worth an evening's browse, while the Printer's Row stores on the 700 block of S. Dearborn (Sandmeyers, Printer's Row Fine Books) offer a more upscale selection.
In early June, Printer's Row also plays host to an enormous book fair. It's not to be missed.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 9:07 PM on February 12, 2008
Ask post:
Whence slider?
The term might have originated in the Navy.
Sailors of the U.S. Navy call Wednesday “slider day,” after the greasy grilled burgers served at evening chow on ships across the fleet. (source)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 8:40 PM on February 12, 2008
Ask post:
Help me identify a book about honesty.
Some possibilities:
Telling Lies, by Paul Ekman.
Lies We Live By, by Carl Hausman.
The Concise Book of Lying, by Evelin Sullivan.
On Bullshit and On Truth, both by Harry G. Frankfurt.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 1:04 PM on February 3, 2008
Ask post:
Looking for Chicago fiction writing groups.
Twilight Tales. It's more of a reading series than the informal workshop setting you seem to be looking for, but it's quite popular among the genre writers in the city. If I were you, I'd go to one of their open mic nights, read a piece or two, and keep a watch for like-minded Neoweirdos and Slipstreamers. You might be able to get your own group going.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 2:27 AM on January 30, 2008
Ask post:
Though-provoking sci-fi?
Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus.
It's the science fiction study of identity and duality, a triptych of novellas set on the uncertain borders between the Self and the Other. Clones, twins, doppelgangers, shapeshifters, slaves, cyborgs, impostors, all come into play in a fantastically intricate story where no character can be trusted to be true to the reader or to themselves. (And as a literary studies bonus, Wolfe goes... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 10:56 PM on January 29, 2008
Ask post:
What is that?
I wonder if it's an archetype.
It looks somewhat runic to me. Let's flail for meaning, shall we?
If you turn the image 90 degrees, it resembles two juxtaposed "Kenaz" runes. Kenaz (means "torch;" Wikipedia prefers both a different rendering and the term Kaunan, meaning "ulcer") corresponds to our modern "K."
According to a site of uncertain reliability, Kenaz... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 2:29 PM on January 28, 2008
Ask post:
The world, it is mad.
Kramer took his title from a 1605 Thomas Middleton play called "A Mad World, My Masters." (The three extra "mads" appear to be Kramer's innovation; he considered adding another but decided it would be redundant.)
In turn, Middleton's title is a lift from a writer named Nicholas Breton, who published a prose dialogue by the name in 1603. Apparently the phrase was a popular English slogan of the time: "'Tis a mad world, my masters.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 10:59 PM on January 19, 2008 marked best answer
Ask post:
How much can one mind hold?
Assuming one lived long enough to do so, what would it be like to reach the limit? Would the saturation manifest as an inability to transfer short term data to storage (like the anterograde amnesia in Memento), or would older memories fade in favor of new ones?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Iridic
at 1:16 PM on December 14, 2007
